The Walking Dead: Season 1 – Review

They’re slow, they’re brain-dead, they’re bloodthirsty… It’s the walkers from The Walking Dead! In case you have been asleep under a rock or hiding out from reality over the past few years; you may not know what The Walking Dead is. It’s a hit US TV show that started in 2010 and has since accumulated a mass following. This Tell Tale game was released in 2012 and is not directly related to the TV show. That means you can play the game before you start watching the show and find it virtually spoiler free. This title is also a very, very straightforward and easy platinum to add to your trophy case, 100% obtaining the platinum for just one play through.

You play as a man named Lee who we will follow on his journey of survival, along the way meeting some lovable and not so lovable characters. Among this cast include a young girl named Clementine, who at first you might find annoying, but she will grow on you. Fighting your way through the hordes of living dead won’t be an action-packed experience you might expect. Like any other Tell Tale game, it is primarily an interactive movie where your choices affect the overall outcome of the game. The game has five episodes that split our journey up into chunks, at the end of each episode it matches the major choices you made with everyone else’s to deliver a percentage. For example, 30% of players chose to shoot the zombie. That is an example, not a real choice of course. I would never spoil anything for you guys!

The beautiful cel-shaded graphical style is something that’s a common recurrence in most of the Tell Tale games. It makes a truly unique feel wrap around every game they release. It’s always interesting to see how each game works with the style and The Walking Dead is no exception. It is clear that a great deal of time has gone into making this world match the universe of The Walking Dead and maintain the key Tell Tale cartoon art style.

The games sound can be a little off-key at times, but most of the time it is solid and lends to the immersion of the experience. Voice acting is great in this game and you have to give them credit where it’s due. The choices made throughout the game massively affect dialogue so you can get characters to say all kinds of things in relation to the situation at hand. The game’s music was composed by Jared Emerson-Johnson, the man behind most of the music in the Tell Tale games. He also worked on games like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and Psychonauts.

The lack of replay value is saddening in this game. If you play through the title making choices that you are happy with, the chances you will replay the game are slim. Once you have a rough idea of how the story pans out, major events still stay the same. So with that been said, it is as though you are playing through the game to only affect the minor outcomes. Some characters die and make rash decisions based on your time spent playing as Lee, which does make you feel like you’re playing a more important role. Like I also mentioned, the game can experience some sound delay, this can be accompanied by a dip in frame rate and delay between each scene section. This delay between scenes can sometimes remind you that this is in-fact a game and kill the immersion a bit.

In summary, this game is one of those you may want to sit down with the other half, or on your own, and just play. Imagine you want to watch a film, but you don’t want the linear commitment tied to that film. You want to be the god that plays with the outcome of this film, and that’s where this title shines. An action-packed, open-world, AAA adventure, it is not. A relatively entertaining, ten-hour film, it is. If you’re a fan of the Tell Tale series then this is one for you! If you’re also a fan of easy platinum trophies, you should check out this title. If none of those things applies to you, giving it a miss won’t hurt. Reasonably entertaining, if not boring at parts, somewhat repetitive and if you aren’t engaged in the story the whole thing will drag. How wlll your story turn out?